Joel Z. Hyatt
| Joel Hyatt | |
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Joel Hyatt at the 69th Annual Peabody Awards
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| Born |
Joel Hyatt Zylberberg May 6, 1950 |
| Alma mater |
Dartmouth College Yale Law School |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur; (former) Attorney; (former) Professor |
Joel Z Hyatt (born Joel Hyatt Zylberberg; May 6, 1950) is a prominent entrepreneur, lecturer, philanthropist, former attorney, and American politician of the Democratic Party, most notably as a Party leader, fundraiser, and foreign policy advisor. He is the founder of Hyatt Legal Services, in which capacity he became a household name for many years, as he was featured in his firm's nationwide television commercials which always ended with the slogan, "I'm Joel Hyatt and you have my word on it." Hyatt also co-founded Current TV.
Hyatt graduated from Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. He briefly practiced law as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Hyatt co-founded Hyatt Legal Services in 1977 as a low-cost legal service, making legal services available to millions of hitherto disenfranchised middle- and lower-class Americans. He later founded Hyatt Legal Plans, which became the country's largest provider of employer-sponsored group legal services, pioneering the concept of Legal Services as a fringe benefit (provided in the same manner as, for example, dental insurance). Hyatt Legal Plans was acquired by MetLife in 1997.
Hyatt was a founding member of the U.S. Senate Democratic Leadership Circle and was a member of that group from 1981 to 1986. He was the Democratic National Committee's assistant treasurer from 1981 to 1983.
He is the son-in-law of former U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, functioning as campaign manager on Metzenbaum's first two successful bids for the Senate. In 1994, when Metzenbaum decided to retire from the Senate, Hyatt ran to replace him. Hyatt won the Democratic nomination, but lost to then Lieutenant Governor Michael DeWine in the general election in a campaign year in which Republicans swept all twelve of the Senate vacancies and unseated many incumbents.
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